This event was recorded on July 20, 2022 at Hotel Jerome as part of the High Notes series, in partnership with Aspen Public Radio.
In this conversation Summers and Vardi discuss their performance practices and experiences while working together for the Aspen Music Festival and School. The musicians discuss the motivation behind Mozart’s decision to use multiple pianos in his Concerto that they will be playing at the Festival. They also speak on the Verdi’s Falstaff pieces that will be performed with the Chamber Symphony.
Patrick Summers is co-Artistic Director of Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS, alongside Renée Fleming. Mr. Summers is the artistic and music director of the Houston Grand Opera. Recent highlights include the Israeli premiere of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking with the Israeli Opera, and Calixto Bieito’s production of Carmen at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain. A leading proponent for contemporary American opera and music generally, Maestro Summers has fostered and given more than twenty world premieres, collaborating with many of today’s most prominent and performed composers, among them Carlisle Floyd, Christopher Theofanidis, and Philip Glass. Mr. Summers conducts a wide range of repertoire from Baroque to bel canto to German Romantic, and he has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Rome Opera, Welsh National Opera, Norwegian Opera, the Bregenz Festival, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Opéra national du Rhin, and Opera Australia, among others.
Arie Vardi, winner of the 2017 Israel Prize, has received international acclaim as one of Israel’s foremost pianists. After winning the Chopin Competition in Israel, he appeared with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Zubin Mehta, and upon winning the George Enescu International Competition in Bucharest, he played numerous concerts throughout Europe. Mr. Vardi studied piano in Basel with Paul Baumgartner and studied composition with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He has performed widely as soloist with major orchestras under the baton of Semyon Bychkov, Sergiu Commissiona, Lukas Foss, Kurt Masur, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Zubin Mehta, Paul Paray, Paul Sacher, Gustavo Dudamel, and David Zinman, among others. Vardi performs regularly as soloist-conductor, playing the complete set of concertos by Bach and Mozart, part of which he has played on the fortepiano. In recent years, he has specialized in the literature of the Impressionist period, including the entire repertoire of Debussy and Ravel.